David Weber (clarinetist)

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David Weber (1913-2006) was an American classical clarinetist known for the beauty of his tone, his inspired playing, and his influential teaching of the clarinet.

David Weber was born in Vilna in present-day Lithuania and came to the United States in 1921. His family settled in Detroit. His parents were not musical, but he liked the sound of clarinet and took it up at the age of 11. While in high school, he studied under Roy Schmidt and Alberto Luconi, principal clarinetists of the Detroit Symphony. Weber then went to New York where he studied under Simeon Bellison, the New York Philharmonic's principal clarinetist, and Daniel Bonade, principal clarinetist of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) Symphony.

Weber's orchestral career began when he did an audition in 1938 for Arturo Toscanini who hired him to play in the NBC Symphony. Weber also played with New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, CBS Symphony, Symphony of the Air, and New York City Ballet Orchestra.

He had a long interest in teaching clarinet and, after leaving the New York City Ballet Orchestra in 1986, devoted himself to teaching at Columbia University and the Juilliard School of Music. Many of his students became prominent clarinetists themselves and teachers in the U.S. and other countries. Former students currently occupy chairs in the Cleveland Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, and the Dallas Symphony. He continued teaching privately until June of 2005, at which point he was a robust 92 years old.

The jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman studied under Weber, who claimed Goodman never paid him and took his best reeds. Current American Ballet Theater principal and acclaimed recording artist Jon Manasse described his teacher's sound as having "a unique bell-like quality" in the January 26, 2006 New York Times obituary on David Weber.